[Mesorah] Tizku vs Tizki

[Mandel, Seth]

It would make perfect sense to have come from Turkey in the 19th century, when R. Palagi lived.  Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the S'faradim there were under heavy influence of Turkish Rabbonim.


Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
Rabbinic Coordinator
The Orthodox Union
11 Broadway, New York, NY  10004

Voice (212) 613-8330     Fax (212) 613-0718     e-mail mandels at ou.org
________________________________________
From: Michael Hamm [msh210 at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 11:41 AM
To: Mandel, Seth
Cc: mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] Tizku vs Tizki

Today, R' Seth Mandel <mandels at ou.org> wrote:
<< However, tizkeh l'mitzvot is not a traditional Jewish greeting, but
rather a modern invention.  IMHO, it is an excellent one, and I use
it, but one cannot claim to be following masorah if one uses a
Galiciane or a Litivish or a German pronunciation, since it was never
used in Europe.  <snip>
The first time I heard it was in EY about 50 years ago.  I never heard
anyone from Europe, or from Yemen, or from Syria ever use the
blessing.  <snip>  I believe it is was an innovation in EY once most
people, even charedim, started speaking Modern Hebrew, maybe not in
shul, but on the street. >>

You've inspired me to search for it.

R' Avraham Palagi (Palachi), son of R' Chayim, writes in his sefer
Sh'mo Avraham ( http://www.hebrewbooks.org/37849 , page 12 in the
PDF), "divchataos vaashamos lo yitachen shey'varech lachavero tizke
l'mitzvos laasos od ken d'ha liklala yechashev d'yecheta od hapaam" --
which sounds to me as though he's using a known turn of phrase (as,
otherwise, he would probably omit the word "l'mitzvos").

R' Avraham Ankava (whoever that is) uses the term in his Kerem Chemed
( http://www.hebrewbooks.org/1019 , page 202 in the PDF, end of the
first paragraph of #46).

M. Hamm